Before I Fall
by Caskett54
Summary: He loves her. She loves him. But it's not that simple. Kate Beckett and her friends feel like they've been preparing for this, for senior year, their whole lives. But they never could have prepared for what happens when two new kids show up at Marlowe High and turn everything on its head. AU, the entire Castle gang plus some as high school seniors. Caskett and Esplanie.
1. Chapter 1

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**There are a few things I'd like to say about this fic before I begin.**

**-In this story, Castle, Beckett, Esposito, Ryan, and Lanie are all high school seniors. I realize that on the show they're all different ages – especially Castle, who was already writing bestsellers when Beckett was in high school – but for the purposes of this fic, they are all eighteen or nineteen. It makes my life much easier.**

**-Some character names may be slightly different. Most noticeably, Castle is still Richard Alexander Rodgers, having not changed his last and middle names yet. Lanie is Elaina Parish (something Lanie could easily be a nickname for), and Gina is Regina Cowell (same deal as with Lanie). **

**-Beckett is only eighteen, so her mother is alive.**

**-This fic takes place in present time rather than whatever year it would've been when Beckett and Castle were in high school, because I wasn't alive back then, so I'll be able to provide a much more realistic story using a modern high school environment.**

**-This IS a Caskett story, but it simply wouldn't do the incredible will-they-won't-they couple justice to bring them together right away. Same goes for Esplanie. So don't freak when you see Rick, Kate, Javi, and Elaina in relationships with people they're not supposed to be in relationships with. I know what I'm doing.**

**-If something in this fic doesn't line up exactly with what we know from the show (other than what I've already mentioned), please try not to kill me. I've probably deliberately changed it to make the story flow more naturally. **

**Feel free to shoot me a PM if anything confuses you, or if you have any advice for me on how to make this story better. I'll try my best to keep everyone in character, despite the extreme AU-ness of this fic. Don't be shy if you've got a problem with something in this story. I love constructive criticism. **

**Anyways, enjoy the ride.**

-0-0-0-

"Mads, I need a haircut."

Madison Queller stepped away from the rack of brightly colored dresses, turning to face her best friend, who was staring in the mirror perched at the top of a rack of sunglasses, running her fingers through her dark bronze waves, her expression edging into agitation.

"Would you like me to do it now?" she asked cynically. "I'm sure I can find a pair of scissors somewhere."

"I don't want _you _to cut my hair," Kate Beckett protested, grabbing a hank of her hair and tossing it into the air; it flew upwards, but seeing as it was attached to her head, it couldn't get far before it dropped back down and landed beside her cheek.

"Probably a good call," Madison agreed, taking a gold sundress off the rack and holding it up to herself. "What do you think?" she called.

Kate turned away from the mirror, barely glancing at her friend before she went back to messing with her hair. "It's nice," she said simply.

"That's what you said about the last one," Madison complained. "And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that."

"Maybe shoulder-length," Kate said, oblivious to Madison's griping. "That'd look better if it weren't wavy, but Mom's got a straightening iron I could use…"

"I like the style," Madison mused, still acting as though she were talking to Kate. "But I don't know if gold is my color. What do you think?"

"Maybe just a few inches off the bottom. Just so it's different."

"No, it's not my color." She lifted the dress with one hand; with the other, she grabbed a handful of her long blond curls and held it up against the gold. "Too matchy-matchy," she said disdainfully, dropping her hair and putting the gold dress back on the rack. "Too much yellow."

"Or maybe really short. That'd be a change. I can't make a pixie cut work, but maybe a bob."

"Becks!" Madison blurted out the nickname, having finally noticed that her friend wasn't paying her any attention.

"Huh?" Kate blinked, twisting a few strands of hair around her pointer finger; without looking over at Madison, she said, "It's nice."

"Look at me, brainless." At this, Kate turned to see Madison staring at her with raised eyebrows, her arms crossed in front of her chest, all of her weight on her left foot.

"We both need new clothes," Madison stated. "It's a new year and we have men to impress. You've got your hottie boyfriend, and I've got the rest of the damn school. So snap out of it and come shop."

"I'm bad at shopping."

"No teenage girl is bad at shopping." She stepped over to Kate and linked arms with her. "You simply haven't discovered your passion for it yet."

"Actually," Kate said, "I'm pretty sure that I'm bad at it."

"Nonsense," Madison sang. "You must let your inner shopper roam freely, Katherine Beckett. You must allow her to soar!"

"I don't have an inner shopper."

"Of course you do."

"No, I'm very extra sure that I don't. You've been trying to find her for four years and you still haven't."

"I'm not giving up hope," Madison said grimly.

"You never do."

"Nope."

-0-0-0-

"I still can't believe you're transferring." Regina Cowell's expression was a perfect pouty face without the actual pout – her eyes wide, her eyebrows raised innocently, her lips full and pursed – a naïve, pleading vision of sadness. "Can't you stay?"

"It's done, Reg," Richard Rodgers replied – the nickname was simply the first syllable of her name, with the g pronounced like a j. Rej. "All the paperwork, everything's done. I can't come back now."

Regina frowned. "Why are you doing this, anyways?"

Rick sighed – they'd been over this many times before. "I told you," he said. "Marlowe High is a great school. Really exclusive. I've been trying to get in since freshman year. El and I only got in this year because some people opted out at the last minute. This is our only chance to go – next year, it's off to college with us." He paused for a second before adding, "MHS looks really good on a college application, too."

"Our school is a good school," Regina told him, a slight whine creeping into her voice. "Our school looks good on a college application."

"Marlowe has a really good creative writing program."

"You and writing!" She stomped on high-heel-clad foot against the polished wood floor of his room. "You know, Rick, you should probably consider some other career options. You might not get published. A lot of people don't!"

Rick frowned. "You've always been supportive of my writing."

"I'm not going to be supportive if it takes you away from me," she replied. "Here. Look." She pushed past him, walking over to his cluttered desk and pulling open the overfull top drawer. Quite a few pens and pencils spilled out and fell to the floor as she reached inside, rifling through the many papers until she found what she was looking for. Pulling it out (and sending a bunch more writing utensils flying out of the drawer), she held it up so he could see it – a two-inch-thick stack of papers. It barely took him a second to figure out what it was.

"You know what this means, Rick?" Regina tried to dramatically slam the stack of rejection letters down on the desk, but soon discovered there was no space to slam them down on; hurriedly, she pulled out the chair and dropped them on that instead. "It means you are never going to make it in that world. That world is for adults, for people who can think for themselves and make rational decisions and act their age." She laughed, a single 'ha', one short note dripping with sarcasm. "It's not a world for people like us."

"It could be," he insisted. "Someday."

"No." She shook her head. "Not for us. Not for you. You're too…" Unable to find an adjective that expressed what she was trying to say, she finished lamely with, "You're too… you."

Rick's eyes narrowed, and he scrunched up his eyebrows suspiciously. He was adorable when he frowned like that, Regina thought, but she didn't like it so much when the frown was directed at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

She shrugged, attempting to smile casually. "Nothing," she said, trying for a light, offhand tone of voice. "You're just… I can't see you as someone who could stand to sit in front of a computer for hours every day."

"Then you don't know me very well."

The pause that followed was long. Too long.

Eventually, he couldn't stand it anymore. The silence was too great, too crushing, too loud. The noises of the city could not drown out the pounding of his heart. Only words could do that.

"You know," he began, "there are ways that my writing could bring us closer."

"Oh, yeah?" She flipped her golden hair haughtily. "Like what?"

He shrugged. "Like… you could be my agent. Or my publisher. You could be my publisher."

Regina sighed; she seemed to deflate a bit, and he got the distinct impression that she was disappointed in him. "I don't want to be your publisher, Rick," she said, her tone just a little condescending. "I want to be your girlfriend. Maybe someday your wife."

"Who says the two are mutually exclusive?"

She groaned, crossing her arms in front of her chest and turning away from him. There was another pause, a silence he couldn't figure out how to break. Eventually, he settled on just stating the point of the conversation. "Look, Reggie. I know you're not too happy about it, but El and I are going to Marlowe."

As he spoke, Regina almost smiled. A new tact was presenting itself to her, handed to her on a silver platter by none other than Rick himself. A new way to maybe convince him to stay.

"Well, if _El _and you are going," she spat, spinning around with an angry expression on her face.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb."

For a moment, his expression remained puzzled; finally, she saw comprehension dawning on his face, and he shook his head wildly. "No. El and me? No. Come on, Reggie, you know it's not like that."

"Don't bother lying," she told him. "I've seen the way you look at her."

"Then you've seen wrong," he replied. "It's not like that."

"It sure as hell looks like that."

"She's my friend."

"You're awfully close."

"I've known her forever. Come on, Reg, this isn't like you."

She sighed; he was right. Who was she kidding? This wasn't working at all. "Okay," she said reluctantly. "I'm sorry, okay?"

His face split into a grin. "It's fine," he told her. "Someday, we'll laugh about these arguments of ours."

Damn him. Damn him and his cocky, reckless, headstrong, immature, childish attitude. Damn him and his disregard for her feelings.

"Everything's a joke to you, isn't it?" she said. "Can't you ever be serious? Don't you realize that this is important to me?" She closed her eyes and turned her face away – not much, just enough that a curtain of blond hair could fall into place and block him from view.

He stepped forward, his expression concerned; reaching out, he swept her hair out of the way with one hand, but she just turned her face further away. Quickly, he caught her cheek and gently turned her head back so she was looking at him. "Hey," he said quietly, allowing a small smile to pull at the corners of his lips. Keeping one hand on her cheek, he lifted the other and pushed the hair that had fallen in front of her face back behind her ear. "It's not like I'm moving across the country."

"I won't see you every day."

"You'll see me plenty."

"It won't be the same."

"You're right," he agreed, gently running his thumb along her jawline. "But we'll be okay. We always are."

"Always," she repeated softly.

"That's right," he murmured. "Always."


	2. Chapter 2

The first day of school was always an ordeal.

Kate's routine was the same every year. She walked two blocks to Madison's house at least fifteen minutes early, and the two caught the bus from there (along with some other friends, some of the time), gossiping all the way. Well, Madison gossiping all the way, and Kate just listening, nodding, and murmuring "Mm-hm." Madison's mother was on the school board, and Mads always had insider knowledge on who'd left and who'd transferred in, and she liked to tell Kate all about it on the way to the first day. Because with Madison, being the only one who knew a secret was like being the only one with M&Ms in a crowd of her friends: she just wouldn't feel right if she didn't share.

This had been their back-to-school routine since freshman year, when they'd both started at Marlowe High School. Madison had been Maddie back then; she hadn't been anything like the fabulous, extravagant, slightly self-absorbed she was today. She was just another middle school dork with braces on her teeth and her blond hair in two side ponytails, wearing her sport-obsessed older sister's hand-me-down clothes. High school had transformed her, and by the end of the first semester, she was unrecognizable. Kate still wasn't sure whether or not she liked the new Mads better than the old one. Not that it made a difference. New Madison wasn't someone who would ever change who she was for someone else.

She loved the new Madison. Still, she sometimes missed their middle school days. They'd met in sixth grade and bonded instantly. Madison was the girl living in the shadow of Jeanine, her older sister, constantly outdone, always the disappointment. She was the A-minus student who teachers shook their heads at because she couldn't quite measure up to her sister's A-plusses. Kate was the bookish nerd, the one who always had her face buried in a crime novel, the one who was constantly spouting random, often useless facts that no one cared about. They were the outsiders, and she liked it that way. Maddie and Kate against the world.

But then they graduated to high school, and Maddie… conformed. She dropped the childish nickname and went by Madison only. She threw out all of Jeanine's old volleyball shorts and swim team t-shirts and bought herself a new wardrobe. Her personality became brighter, more confident, more outgoing. She was a whole new person, and Kate stayed the same.

But Kate was gorgeous, and she was the best friend of Madison the Charismatic, Madison the Popular, Madison the Fun. And in light of that, no one minded that she'd prefer to pull out a Dan Brown novel and immerse herself in the world of Robert Langdon, rather than engage in everyday conversation. Such was the way of the Kate, as Madison liked to say; use of this line would always prompt a laugh from whatever admirers she had around her.

And so it was that Katherine Beckett, by neither means nor intention of her own, entirely without meaning to, became popular.

It was the strangest thing, and she still didn't fully understand how it had happened.

"She's just another stuck-up rich bitch who thinks she's _so _smart because she got into a prestigious high school, but really it was her daddy's money that did the trick," Madison told her as she carefully brushed mascara onto her eyelashes, her face two inches away from the hanging mirror. "There are too many of those in the world, don't you think?"

"Hmm?" Kate looked up from where she sat on the edge of Madison's bed.

Madison sighed. "Emerald Davey. One of the new girls in our year? Come on, Kate, I've been talking about her for the past minute and a half."

"Give me that." Kate stood up, walked across the room to her friend, and slipped the mascara from between her fingers. "You don't need this," she told her, screwing the cap on and tossing it back into Madison's cute blue makeup bag. "Your eyelashes are plenty dark already."

Madison frowned, but when she reached into the makeup bag, what she pulled out was her tube of orange-pink eyeliner rather than the mascara. As she began to lightly apply it along the rim of her upper eyelid, she glanced over at Kate. "Are you even wearing any makeup?" she demanded.

"Some," Kate replied defensively. Before she'd left the house, she'd dusted on a thin coating of pale brown eyeshadow and smeared a little of her favorite bronze lipstick on her lips, but most of her extra time had been spent dragging her mother's straightening iron over clumps of her hair in the hopes of carefully evening out her untidy waves into neat, dead straight lines. She had to say, she was quite pleased with the result.

"Barely any," Madison muttered before turning back to the mirror. "So, yeah. Emerald Davey – lost cause."

"Got it."

"There's one girl who sounds kind of cool. Helena or something. She's transferring from Duncan High, which is a pretty good school."

"I know," Kate agreed. "I was going to go to Duncan if I didn't get into Marlowe."

"Yeah. Anyways, she only got in because a few other people cancelled at the last minute. She was at the top of the waiting list. There's a guy transferring from Duncan with her, something Rodgers, I think, but I may be wrong. Mom didn't know much about him."

"Okay." Once Madison had finished with the eyeliner, Kate grabbed her and dragged her away before she could fish something else out of the makeup bag. "Come on."

"Blush!" Madison cried dramatically.

"You're fine. You don't need it."

"Blush!"

"Calm down. We need to go, or Kevin and Jen will wonder what happened to us."

At the name 'Kevin', Madison relaxed. "Kevin," she repeated dreamily as she and Kate headed for the front door. "That boy is fine."

"That boy is taken," Kate reminded her. "By one of your best friends."

"Oh. Right." Madison frowned. "Have I mentioned that I find it odd that I'm the only one in our gruesome threesome without a hot boyfriend?"

Kate cracked a smile as she slid her feet into black leather flats. Jennifer Scout Duffy O'Malley, known by her friends as simply Jenny or Jen, was the only other girl she and Madison had grown particularly close to at Marlowe. Sure, Mads was constantly surrounded by 'friends', but none of them were real, girls-night-out, cry-and-eat-ice-cream-together-after-a-rough-breakup friends. Not like Kate and Jenny. There were a couple of boys that the 'gruesome threesome' (as Madison loved to call them) would hang out with, too, and in sophomore year, Jenny had started dating one of them – Kevin Ryan. They'd been together since, and they were absolutely adorable. The sort of love that they had was the subtly beautiful sort; the sweet, romantic, cheesy sort that you read about in books.

"Come on." Kate turned to Madison – she was a few inches taller, she noticed, thanks to the brown high-heeled gladiator sandals she'd strapped onto her feet. She wore jean shorts that were just barely dress code, a solid color purple tank top, and a cropped white leather jacket with sleeves that stopped at her elbows, a folded-out collar, lots of little pockets, and a row of unused belt loops around the hem. "We wouldn't want to keep Mr. and Mrs. Ryan waiting."

"They're not married yet."

"I know that," Madison said in an 'uh duh' sort of voice. "Give it a year or two."

Kate laughed, partially at her friend and partially in agreement with her. Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised; Kevin and Jenny were the kind of high school sweethearts (did people even call them that anymore?) she could see getting married.

Madison called a quick goodbye to her parents, and the two girls headed out the door. It wasn't a long walk from Madison's apartment building to the corner where they'd always wait for the bus, just a block or two, and Mads seemed determined to fit every bit of useless gossip into the short walk as possible. So they walked, Madison yammering, Kate half-listening, until Kevin and Jenny came into view.

"Kate," Jenny greeted brightly, sweeping honey-blond hair out of her face as she took a step towards them. "Madison."

"Hey, Jen," Kate replied; when the three reached each other, Jenny opened her arms, and Kate slipped into them easily, accepting the smaller girl's embrace. Jenny was the kind of person who, for whatever reason, was positively huggable. Kate couldn't really figure out what it was, but something about her just made you want to hug her all the time. Kate would never sneak up behind Madison and wrap her arms around her from behind. But everyone did it to Jenny.

After a second, Jenny pulled away, moved to the side, and embraced the waiting Madison. "It's so good to see you guys," she told them as she stepped back. "It's been way too long." Jenny (much to Madison's chagrin) had been in France for the majority of the summer, and in the week and a half that she'd been back she hadn't had the chance to get together with Kate and Madison. So despite the fact that two of their gruesome threesome had spent most of their summer together, neither of them had seen Jenny in almost two months.

"I know," Madison agreed as they began to walk back towards where Kevin stood. "I'm still totally pissed that you got to go to Paris and didn't take me, you know," she added, almost as an afterthought.

"Mads." Kate hit her lightly on the shoulder, and turned back to Jenny. "Ignore her. How was France?"

Jenny's eyes lit up. "Oh, it was incredible. Such a beautiful place."

"Was the food amazing?" Madison demanded. "Was the fashion awesome? Did you meet a hot French guy?"

Jenny raised her eyebrows, giving Madison a flawless _are-you-serious _look (something she'd perfected after years of watching Kate give it). "Yes, yes, and no," she said. "I don't know if you've noticed, Mads, but I'm kind of in a relationship here."

"Oh, I've noticed," Madison replied vehemently. "Kind of difficult not to notice."

The three had reached where Kevin was standing; as Jenny laughed, a clear, high-pitched, musical sound, he inched towards her and put an arm around her. She smiled, leaning into him, placing a hand on his chest as she returned the side hug; she was short enough that when she rested her head on his shoulder, it was more like resting her head against his shoulder, but neither of them seemed to mind.

They stood that way, with Madison quickly filling them in on what she'd already told Kate about the new kids that year, for several minutes, until the bus pulled up. Kate was the first one to notice – she pointed up at it, simply stating, "Bus." In the few seconds it took Kevin and Jenny to disentangle themselves, Kate and Madison had already hurried up the stairs and in the door. Kevin and Jenny hurried in after them as the two slid into a seat near the back; they took the seat across the aisle, and Madison continued chatting with them as the bus began to move, carrying the four friends towards their first day as seniors.


	3. Chapter 3

Marlowe High School had always felt like a big place to Kate.

It was a large white building, two stories – three if you counted the labyrinth-like basement below. Which, she supposed, you really should, seeing as a lot of classes were held in rooms down there. It was so much larger than the private middle school Kate had come from, a giant next to the dwarf that was Miller Academy. She'd always seen it as enormous. Until she took a summer art program at a public high school between freshman and sophomore year, and she realized that Marlowe was actually quite small by comparison.

But in spite of that knowledge, every day as she walked down the sidewalk that cut through the grassy front lawn towards the school, she still liked to crane her neck and look up at the roof and smile. Large or small, Marlowe was her place. Her school. And she liked it either way.

Kevin and Jenny hurried ahead in search of Kevin's best friend, the fourth member of their group. But Madison and Kate took their time as they wandered towards the doors. Madison greeted nearly every person they passed by name, gushing over how good it was to see them. And Kate smiled up at the roof.

"Excuse me."

The voice came while Madison was busy saying hello to a guy named Leo; it was distinctly male, and the tone carried a friendly smile. Kate spun around, her straightened hair flying out behind her in a sort of shining dark fan before settling down again.

It didn't take her long to locate the person the voice belonged to. He was tall; he had at least a few inches on her and a few more on Madison (when she wasn't wearing heels), despite the fact that both girls were pretty tall. His hair was dark brown, his nose was on the large side, and his lips were curved up in an overconfident smile. But that wasn't what her gaze was immediately drawn to. No, it was his eyes that pulled her in – casually narrowed, accentuated by thick eyebrows, an indescribable shade of blue.

Brown hair, blue eyes. Just like Kevin. But Kevin's hair was lighter brown, and his eyes a much more vibrant blue. This guy's eyes were… light blue. Gray blue. A shade that on someone else (like Kate) might have looked cold and icy, but on him, somehow, it was warm.

Her first thought, not surprisingly, was spoken in her mind in Madison's voice.

_Damn. That boy is fine._

She almost wanted to laugh, because the Mads in her head was right. 'Fine' was a good word for the sort of good looks this boy possessed. Hot wasn't quite right. Sexy – there was some sex appeal, a good bit, but it wasn't the dominating factor. Cute was out of the question. Fine was almost perfect, though.

Handsome. That was good. Ruggedly handsome. Even better.

There was a girl with him, Kate noticed – shorter than Kate and Madison but taller than Jenny, with caramel-brown skin, a round face, dark brown eyes, and black hair, almost imperceptibly wavy, that fell halfway between her shoulders and elbows. She wore a tight blue tank top with a V-neck and skinny jeans that flared out at the bottom, long enough that all you could see of her purple sneakers was the toes. Her arm was linked with the boy's and she was leaning away from him, almost hanging off of him; the brightness of her wide eyes and the smile on her face said that she had just been laughing.

_Probably his girlfriend, _a part of her mind whispered. She wasn't sure why, but something about the thought felt like… well, like more than just a thought.

"I'm Rick," the boy told her, oblivious to the thoughts running through her head. She nodded, opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by a hissed, "Hey!" in a familiar voice.

She turned around, searching for Madison. She found her quickly, just a few steps down the path, and she hurried over to meet her. "What is it, Mads?"

"Who is that?" her friend demanded, and Kate didn't need to ask who she was referring to.

"Rick," she relayed.

"Rick who?"

"I don't know, do I? You called me over here before I could say anything?"

Madison looked over at Rick, who was bending his head down to say something into the dark-skinned girl's ear; as he pulled his head away, she burst into peals of clear, musical laughter, tipping her head back as her face broke into a grin.

"He is _fine_," Madison said emphatically, echoing Kate's thoughts from earlier, as the girl's laughter died down. "I mean, he is seriously fine. He is…" She paused, searching for a suitable word. "He is doable. He is absolutely doable."

"Mads."

"I'm serious. I would do him."

"Maddie!"

"What, Becks?"

Kate sighed, rolling her eyes. "He can probably hear us."

Madison shrugged. "So?"

"So!" Kate widened her eyes and parted her lips, her eyebrows shooting up, hoping her exasperated expression would finish the sentence for her, but Madison just rolled her eyes. "Come on, Becks," she said. "It's your last year of high school." She grabbed Kate's shoulders, pulling her towards her, and said in her ear, "Enjoy it."

As she stepped back, she said, "I'm going to go catch up with the others. See you in there?"

"See you," Kate agreed, and Madison nodded and took off towards the school at a jog.

"So." Kate couldn't help but jump a little as Rick's voice sounded again behind her. She turned back to them, once again taking in the sight of him and the dark-skinned girl smiling at her.

"So?" she pressed, urging him to continue.

"What does 'Becks' stand for?"

Kate closed her eyes, dropping her shoulders. Of course. He'd heard them. That was kind of embarrassing.

"Rebecca?" he theorized, taking a step towards her (she couldn't see him, but she heard the twin footsteps as both he and the girl with him advanced). "Just Becca?"

"Beckett," she told him as she opened her eyes.

He raised an eyebrow. "Beckett," he repeated, his tone puzzled, and – was that appreciative? No, surely not. Why would it be? But still, she couldn't help but let a small breath hiss out between her slightly parted lips. She wasn't sure what it was, but something about the way the name rolled off his tongue… she wanted him to call her by it every day.

"It's my last name," she explained quickly. "My – my first name's Kate."

"Kate," he echoed again, and she couldn't stop the chill that ran down her spine. She couldn't do anything but hope he hadn't noticed the shudder that traveled through her body. Because she'd changed her mind – she didn't want him to call her Beckett every day. She wanted him to call her Kate.

"It's a nice name," he told her.

"Thanks," she replied. "And you're… Rick, you said." It was a lame response, she knew. Her people skills had never been great, and it was all she could come up with.

"Richard Alexander Rodgers," he told her, and something clicked in her mind. Something Madison had told her, about a boy transferring from Duncan High School. _Something Rodgers, _Mads had said. Richard Rodgers, apparently. Richard Alexander Rodgers. Something in Kate was itching to try it out, to see if his name slipped from her mouth as easily as his did from hers, but she wasn't sure if it would be weird.

Kate's eyes flicked instinctively towards the girl with him – the girl Madison had talked about, surely, the one who this boy was transferring with, she couldn't quite remember her name – as though she expected Rick to introduce her, perhaps with the prelude of 'This is my girlfriend'.

But the girl introduced herself instead. "I'm Elaina Parish," she said, pulling her free hand from the pocket of her jeans and offering it to Kate, a friendly smile on her face. Kate took it, barely shaking it before she let go, feeling rather awkward. She tried to shove both of her hands into her pockets, but quickly remembered that the jeans she'd put on didn't actually have them. For a second, she perched them on her hips, before she changed her mind and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Okay, it was really, really obvious that she felt awkward. She'd never been good at hiding it, but she still couldn't stop the red creeping up in her cheeks.

"Kate Beckett," she replied, hoping this Elaina girl wouldn't notice her flushing.

"I heard," Elaina replied.

For a second, there was a pause, a silence that only served to make Kate feel even more awkward and out of place. Finally, Rick began, "We're new here."

"I heard," Kate interrupted, blurting out the line – the same one Elaina had uttered only seconds earlier – before she had a chance to stop herself and think of a more reasonable response.

Rick's brow furrowed in confusion, and Kate bit the inside of her cheek. Crap. Now she had to explain.

"My friend, Madison," she gestured over her shoulder to indicate that she was talking about the blonde girl who had just left, "her mom's on the school board, and she likes to talk about the new students. The ones transferring into Marlowe this year. Like you guys."

And now it sounded like she – or, at the very least, her best friend – was stalking them. God, she hoped this was all in her head and she wasn't actually making this much of a fool of herself.

Rick nodded, looking off in the direction that Madison had gone. "She's a little odd, that friend of yours."

"Madison?" Kate laughed – a single, strange note, a sound that is best written as 'tuhuh'. "You've no idea."

Rick smiled. He didn't laugh, but he smiled, and that was enough to make Kate relax. Maybe she wasn't embarrassing herself as much as she thought she was.

"So, yeah," he begins. "El and I are new here, and we're kind of looking for someone who could show us around. You look like you know the place pretty well."

Kate shrugged. "I guess. I've been here since freshman year. If you need someone to show you the ropes…" Another shrug. "I'd be happy to."

"Sweet." As a thought occurred to him, Rick thrust his hand into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. It took him almost a full minute to open it (he had folded it rather excessively, until it was a two inch by two inch square), by which time Kate had guessed what he was holding was a schedule.

"El and I both have World History first," he told her. "Are you in the same group as us, or – because we can find someone who's got the same classes –"

"Marlowe isn't as big a school as Duncan, Mr. Rodgers," Kate interrupted. "There are only about thirty seniors, and we all tend to be in the same place at the same time."

"Kate!"

She turned at the sound of her name to see a girl running down the sidewalk towards her. A woman, really – she was twenty-one years old, having celebrated her birthday barely a month ago. Kate hadn't been at the party, but she'd helped the woman's younger brother pick out a present. She had the same sort of bronze-colored hair as Kate, a few shades lighter, falling almost to her elbows in tight, frizzy, messy curls. It was tugged back in its usual low ponytail, emphasizing her prominent cheekbones, broad forehead, and bright blue eyes.

Allyson Ryan stopped just in front of Kate, one step forward and a few to the left from Rick and Elaina. "Hey," she greeted briefly before holding out a black backpack to her. "Kev left this at home."

Kate took the backpack, unzipping it and peering inside at the stack of textbooks. "Those could be important."

"Yeah."

"Hey, when are you heading back to school?"

"Columbia doesn't start up for another few weeks," Allyson replied. "Good thing, too. Means I've got Kev's back for the first few weeks he's in school. You know how absentminded he can be."

"I know," Kate agreed.

"So, you'll give that to him?"

"Of course."

"Thanks. I owe you one." Without another word, she turned and sprinted back down the path.

"Who was that?" Rick asked once she was out of earshot.

"Close friend's older sister," Kate replied. "I need to go. World History is in the basement, in room B-7. Shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Okay," he said, nodding. "See you there, Beckett."

"See you."


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as Kate stepped inside, someone grabbed her by the arm and began pulling her along. Stumbling, trying to keep up, she couldn't see much more than yellow hair and purple fabric, but it didn't matter. She could guess who it was.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard her attacker call out – not to her, but to someone further down the hallway. "Hey," Madison yelled. "Look what I found."

She pushed Kate forward, towards a group of three laughing people. As she regained her balance, Kate recognized Kevin and Jenny, hand in hand. The third person was more familiar still, and her face broke into a grin as she stepped towards him, all of the emotions corresponding to him rushing to the forefront of her mind.

"Kate," he greeted brightly, hurrying over to meet her. They closed the space between them quickly, crashing together as their arms found their way around one another. In contrast to Kevin and Jenny, they'd always been more of a hugging couple than a kissing couple. They agreed that they much preferred the physical closeness, the sharing of body heat, and the reassuring pressure that accompanied embracing over the simple brush of lips.

She hugged him like she always did, with her arms around his neck so he could easily wrap his around her midriff. A small laugh escaped her lips as the sheer force of his bear hug lifted her off her feet; he held her up there for a few seconds before setting her gently back down on the ground.

"Hi," he greeted as they pulled away just enough to look in each other's eyes (they liked each other's eyes – hers were a gorgeous light brown, just green enough to be called hazel, and his were a beautiful chocolate color, smooth and sweet and deep and warm).

She smiled, tucking her hair behind her ear and shifting her weight to her left leg; her bottom row of teeth held her bottom lip in place as the top row grazed it gently on the left side. "Hey, Javi."

"Good summer?" he asked.

"It was alright," she replied with a shrug. "Missed you."

"You too, chica." He brushed a kiss on her forehead, and she closed her eyes, smiling. Javier's touch didn't send the same shivers down her spine that Rick's did. It never had. Instead, it filled her with a sort of calming warmth, an avalanche of emotion causing enough friction to keep her warm on the coldest day. It was a sensation she'd never known how to describe until she'd landed on one word that, in her mind, seemed to sum it up.

_Love._

She'd called it love then and since then had seen no reason to change that assumption. But there was an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach, something that felt different. Something that felt off.

Did she like Javi? Absolutely. A whole lot.

Did she love him?

There was a time when she thought so.

She wasn't sure if that time was over or not.

It was just distance, she thought. Just the simple fact that she hadn't seen him since early summer. Their lives had kept them busy (her trip to see her grandparents in Boston had ended barely a day before he left to visit cousins in Florida), and Kate knew from experience – mostly secondhand, through Madison – that separation was not good for a relationship. Some time spent together, and they'd easily fall back into step. She was sure of it. And when his lips touched her forehead, the warmth was still there, so that had to count for something. Right?

She saw his eyes flick between the blue one-shoulder backpack on her back and the black one in her hands, and smiled quickly at him before stepping towards Kevin and holding out the bag. "I believe this is yours."

His eyes widened as he took it from her, quickly unzipping it to make sure it held what he thought it did. "Where'd you get this?"

"Your sister brought it."

"Which one?" he asked dryly, zipping the bag up again.

"Allyson."

"Ally?" He slung the bag over one shoulder. "When'd you see Ally?"

"Just now." Kate pointed at the bag. "She came by to drop that off."

"Oh. I'll have to thank her for that."

"Yes, you will."

Kevin sighed, making a face. "I hate thanking Allyson."

Kate frowned. "Why?"

"Because she's my sister." When Kate's expression remained blank, he sighed again. "Only child," he said, pointing at her. "You don't get it. It's… bothersome. And humiliating. Thanking Allyson… it's manageable, I guess. I'm just glad it was her and not Danielle or Reagan. That's way worse."

"Why?" Kate asked again.

"Because they're younger than me."

"Technically," Madison pointed out, "it couldn't have been either of them, because Dani's fourteen and Reagan's eight, and neither of them can drive."

"It could've been Dani," Kevin said darkly.

"How?"

"Dani's here."

Kate tipped her head to the side. "Hey. She is." She hadn't even registered that Dani Ryan had graduated from middle school and would be starting her first year as they started their last one. It felt… bizarre. Dani wasn't meant to occupy the same space as her brother. The idea felt strange in Kate's mind. "That is weird."

"Tell me about it," Kevin agreed. "Reagan thinks it means we're going to be best friends."

"Poor delusional kid," Javi agreed, his face a comical mask of mock seriousness that made Kate want to laugh. "Poor kid in general," he amended after a second.

Kevin frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The name?" When Kevin didn't respond, Javier elaborated. "Reagan Ryan? Bro. I swear I've mentioned this before."

"He has," Madison agreed.

"Multiple times," Jenny chimed.

"What's wrong with the name?" Kevin asked, sounding almost hurt.

Javi shrugged. "It's just hard to say. Reagan is too much like Ryan."

"It's not her fault," Kevin replied defensively.

Madison laughed. "Hey. Down, boy. No one said it was. We all love Reagan here, so you can stop with the brotherly protectiveness. It's weird."

"She's right, bro." Javi stepped back away from Kate to clap Ryan on the shoulder. "You cannot pull off the tough guy thing."

Kevin seemed to develop a sudden interest in his sneakers; Jenny inched closer to him, sending them all looks tinged with resentment. But one of the many wonderful things about Jenny was that she seemed incapable of staying angry for very long, so as soon as Kevin looked up, his expression saying he was over it, she cast them all apologetic smiles.

"Come on, Big Brother," Madison said brightly, hurrying over to Kevin and looping an arm over his shoulder, pulling him (and, thus, pulling Jenny) along with her as she set off towards the stairs to the basement. "First day as seniors. Let's not screw it up, shall we?"

"Don't call him Big Brother," Kate muttered as she trailed along behind her friend. "It's weird."

In reply, Madison laughed. It was a nice sound, really, full and happy and loud, the kind of laugh that turned heads a hundred yards away because everyone was wondering what could possibly make this girl so positively happy. But, because Kate knew Madison, it was a little bit unsettling, too. Because when Mads answered with a laugh, you never knew it she was going to actually do what you asked her to do or not.

They walked as a cohesive unit, Madison and Kevin and Jenny all at the front, Kate and Javi just a few paces behind. Madison was chatting amiably about whatever topic had popped into her mind – Jenny seemed kind of interested, nodding her head and occasionally holding out a hand to stop Madison so she could add an opinion to the conversation. Kevin, on the other hand, looked like he was less than happy to be caught in the middle.

Still, they were all caught up in this mystery conversation, so only Kate heard Javier as he chuckled softly to himself and shook his head, muttering, "Reagan Ryan… poor kid…"

-0-0-0-

"Hey! Kate!"

Good. He managed to catch her before she disappeared into the crowd. Not that it was much of a crowd – Marlowe really was a small school. But when he'd seen her walking into their World History class, she'd been with four other people. Madison, her blonde friend who'd called him 'doable'; a girl with honey-blond hair and a boy with short brown hair who walked hand in hand, an obvious couple; and a Hispanic boy who walked with his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans, his gaze fixed on Kate. Her friends. Hopefully that was all they were.

Why was he thinking this? He had a girlfriend. He'd just met this Kate girl. He barely knew her. Why would he be hoping the boy who kept his eyes on her wasn't her boyfriend?

Wow, Rick. It couldn't have been because she was the most undeniably gorgeous creature he'd ever seen in his life.

He probably shouldn't be thinking that, either.

Still, it was true. He'd seen beautiful girls before. Regina was beautiful, no doubt about that. Kate's friends, Madison and the honey-blonde girl, were beautiful. Even Elaina was beautiful – he'd be lying if he said that thought had never crossed his mind. But Kate outshone them all. Everything about her fascinated him. How she seemed to be the perfect sort of thin, not super-skinny like the girls at Duncan whose only ambition in life seemed to be to get as tiny as possible, but lean and slender, the sort of body that came from genetics and exercise rather than diets and eating disorders. The way the light rippled and distorted off that sleek, shining curtain of golden-brown hair. The easy confidence with which she walked. The curve of her nose. The way her eyelashes were so long it was a miracle they didn't get all tangled up when she blinked.

When he'd first seen her as he and Elaina walked down the path, he'd only been able to see a little more than half of her face. Her hand was lifted to shade her eyes as she peered up – at the sun, at the sky, at something up there, he didn't know what – and her eyes were covered in shadows. Before he'd spoken, he'd found himself becoming shamelessly fixated on her lips. It was strange – when you asked a guy what attractive features he wanted his ideal girl to have, he probably wouldn't say, "Gorgeous lips." Rick wouldn't say that. But still, the shape of them, the way they naturally hung just slightly parted… like everything else about her, it fascinated him.

And then he'd spoken, and she'd turned, and his attention had immediately shifted.

Because oh, God, her _eyes._

As he called to her, she turned again, tapping the Hispanic boy she walked beside on the shoulder and telling him something before hurrying over to Rick. "Hey," she said casually. Wait. He'd forgotten to include that in the list of things about her that fascinate him. Number too-many-to-count – her voice.

"Hi," he greeted. "Look, I don't want to keep you from your friends –"

"It's fine," she assures him. "Mads will probably go on ahead anyways, and the others won't mind waiting. What did you need?"

What did he need? So many things. But he wasn't going to say that.

"My next class," he told her. "Again, I've got no idea how to get there."

She didn't respond, just reached into her back pocket and began feeling around for something. As she did, she held out her other hand, saying, "Give me your schedule."

He did, pulling it out and unfolding it for her. By the time he did, she had gotten what she was looking for – a pen. A nice one, silver and black, a brand he didn't recognize. Taking the paper, she hurried over to the closest wall and held it up against the hard surface, carefully scribbling something next to each class name. After a few seconds, she walked back over to him, handing him the finished product.

"We've got Biology next," she told him. "That's up on the ground floor, room 1-4. I've marked everything down for you, so you should be able to find everything on your own from now on." He could hear the subtext as clearly as if she'd said it aloud – _so you won't have to bother me after every class._

"Alright, then," he said. "Thanks, Kate."

"Not a problem," she told him. "I've got to go. Tell Elaina I said hi." Without another word, she turned and hurried back to where the Hispanic boy was waiting for her. He couldn't hear them, but he saw the boy's mouth move as he asked her a question; she responded with a flippant, dismissive wave of her hand and words said with a smile. He nodded, and draped an arm over her shoulders as they began to walk away.

So, probably not just a friend. Why did that disappoint him?

He looked down at the schedule, at the words and letters scrawled on it in black ink. She had written not only the floors and classroom designations but also the names of the teachers of each subject. She had large, loopy handwriting, he noted, all capital letters. On the Ds and Bs, the vertical lines were perfectly straight, but the outward-facing loops extended backwards past them, circling back a bit so that the Bs almost looked like the B at the beginning of Buffy on the covers of the DVDs. The vertical lines of the Es, Ks, and Rs, on the other hand, had an additional loop-like flourish at the top, probably an unintentional addition caused by the speed with which she wrote. Almost unconsciously, he ran a finger over the R in MARIA DENNIS, tracing the motion her pen would have made to create the first letter of his name.

His favorite letters that she made, though, weren't the Rs. They were the Cs. Perfect ovals with a bit of the line taken out of the right side, with the force of the speed she wrote with propelling her pen to continue swirling even after she finished the semicircle of the letter. The result was that the lower end of the C looped around, curling inward and ending with a barely noticeable blot from where she'd allowed her pen to linger for a second after she stopped its motion.

"What're you looking at?" He turned his head to see Elaina standing on her tiptoes, trying to look over his shoulder at the paper in his hand.

"Schedule," he replied, folding it up quickly and shoving it back in his pocket. Not quickly enough. She managed to get a glimpse of the writing, and, being rather smart, it only took her seconds to figure it out.

She shook her head slowly – disapprovingly, maybe, or just sadly – as she moved to stand beside him. "You're crazy, Rick," she told him. "You know that?"

"I know," he agreed. "Biology classroom is up one floor. Room 1-4."

She nods and steps forward, hurrying towards her destination on her own. Before she's out of sight, though, she turns back to him and calls out two words.

"Be careful."

Then she's gone.

-0-0-0-

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**I know that on the show, Ryan has only mentioned one sister (in Once Upon a Crime, he states that his sister used to read him Little Red Riding Hood). That sister is Allyson. But he's always kind of struck me as the kind of guy who maybe grew up surrounded by sisters, and so we have Danielle and Reagan. Just felt like maybe I should say something about that.**


	5. Chapter 5

"_Be careful."_

Elaina's words rang in his head for the rest of the day.

She knew him well. Maybe better than anyone. When you're best friends with a person for sixteen years, getting to know each other really well is to be expected. But what he wasn't expecting was an unfortunate side effect – a sudden inability to keep secrets from this girl.

El had always had a bizarre ability to see right through people. He should've guessed that this would count double for him. And, to his dismay, it's reached the point where she can take one look at him and find what he's trying to hide.

She did it when they first met Kate, before they spoke to her. He'd stopped walking once he'd caught sight of her, beautiful and classy in tight jeans and a blue shirt that buttoned up the front. Elaina had come up behind him and had barely needed to look at him to notice he was staring. She'd looked up at him and raised her eyebrows, saying, "Rick, she is not your type."

It was true. She wasn't. His type had always been girls like Regina, girls with the bodies and hair and faces and brains of supermodels. Gorgeous airheads. Regina was really the best of them – she thought for herself, formulated opinions, spoke her mind. She was someone who he could have a reasonable (albeit not all that lengthy) discussion with. Sure, she could be stubborn and a little bit self-centered and angry for no reason at times, but it worked for her. It worked for them.

No. If Reggie was pushing it a little, Kate was certainly not his type.

So why couldn't he take his eyes off her?

When he hadn't responded, Elaina had clucked her tongue, shaking her head, saying, "You never cease to amaze me."

"I'm pretty great like that," he'd agreed, and she'd laughed, linking her arm with his. "Come on," she'd told him, and pulled him forward down the path.

_Be careful._

Another thing about knowing someone as well as you know yourself – when they give you a piece of advice, it's generally a good idea to listen.

Elaina's a smart girl. Loyal, too. Sweet. Understanding. Sassy and sarcastic, sure, but if a guy wants a girl to be best friends with, she's probably the best there is. She's great, really. Growing up with her meant he was never lonely; he never longed for the father he never knew, because between his mother and Elaina, he had everything he needed. She was there, at his side, always, because no burden that life threw at Rick that she had to help carry could persuade her to leave. She was stubborn like that. Through bullies and failures and bad breakups, El was a constant, something strong and grounded to hold onto to keep him from slipping away. That was best friends were for.

So if she told him to be careful, he was going to be careful.

So he kept his distance. He didn't have an excuse to approach Kate anymore, not since she wrote down all the directions he needed on his schedule (damn her and her logical thinking). Watching her from a distance made her feel like a stalker – and something about her told him she wouldn't be too happy if she caught him at it – so he resigned himself to sitting a ways behind her in each class and occasionally sneaking a glance over the top of his textbook.

It wasn't enough. Not by a long shot.

But it would have to be enough for now.

The cafeteria at Marlowe had a funny setup – it contained thirty or forty small tables, big enough for four people to eat at but small and light enough that students could pick them up and move them around to their heart's desire. The result was what could only be described as a cluttered, nonsensical mess. Some tables had been pushed into isolated corners so that antisocial kids could bury their face in a book alone as they ate, or so someone could get peace and quiet to study through lunch, or so a couple could have a bit of privacy. On the other hand, some tables had been grouped together into clusters of up to ten tables where friends all sat together, eating and talking and laughing.

Kate was sitting in a group of four tables; her table held only her, the Hispanic boy, and her friend Madison. At the table just next to them, the honey-blonde girl and her boyfriend had pushed their chairs as close to the other three as possible, and two dark-haired boys in glasses argued over something they had written on a piece of paper – a long, complex math problem, from what Rick could see. The other two tables were home to seven more students, mostly girls, who talked amongst themselves and to Madison, who seemed to be rather popular. Despite the presence of the rest of the large group, Kate herself only seemed interested in the four people he had seen her with earlier, mainly Madison and the Hispanic boy.

He contemplated dragging another table over there so he and Elaina could join them.

He stood there contemplating for too long.

They didn't notice him watching, but he didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But after a while, Elaina grabbed his arm, pulling him away and saying, "Come on, I got us a table." He came without a fight.

Because he didn't want to watch Kate pushing her hair out of her face as she watched the Hispanic boy, her eyes shining as he held her hand and told her things that made her smile.

So he went with Elaina to the table where she'd set their lunch trays, where they sat together across from a senior girl with vibrant orange hair who introduced herself as 'Jordan S.' She was a new friend of El's, her partner from Biology. She seemed cool enough, but he didn't really understand what El saw in her – until she confessed her obsession with Angry Birds.

"You're kidding." He quickly moved over to her side of the table, where she was pulled out her iPod and scrolling to a page dedicated entirely to Angry Birds. "I love that game. Do you have the Space version?"

"Of course." Quickly, she tapped on Angry Birds Space; she had to scroll for a while to get to the level she's on, but as soon as she reached it she started flinging birds at green pigs for him to watch.

"Only reason I'm still hanging with my clueless parents," she joked, wiggling the iPod. "For the toys."

"You're pretty good," he admitted.

"Thanks."

"I'm better, though," he added quickly, stretching out his hand across the table – El, as though she'd been waiting for this to happen, immediately handed him his iPod.

Jordan laughed as he opens his own Angry Birds Space app. "Oh, you're on."

So he spent lunch with Jordan, desperately trying to beat her redhead in Angry Birds (without success), while Elaina watched them with a smile that said she thought they were both absolutely crazy. When lunch was over, Jordan suggested they meet up after school for a burger, because she knew the perfect place. And when he asked, "Remy's?" she replied with, "Good lord, you really are perfect." And he cracked a smile, because he knew she wasn't serious.

So they arranged to get together after school and walk to Remy's, since it's not that far. And they wander to their next class together, chatting endlessly about the pros and cons of various iPod games, thoughts of Kate all but forgotten.

-0-0-0-

"And so, he says, he says, 'They used to do this to me for talking in class'!"

They all laughed – all but Jenny and Javi, that is, who just smiled knowingly. They'd heard this story before.

"That," Madison declared, shoulder-bumping Kevin, "is awesome. What does the guy say to that?"

Kevin shrugged. "I don't know. Don't remember."

"Something about bravado," Javi supplemented, and Kevin nodded in agreement.

Kate shook her head. "Kev, you make up the best stories."

"I'm not making this up," he replied, sounding slightly hurt.

"Uh-huh. You seriously expect me to believe that that actually happened to you."

"Not me! A guy I know."

"A guy you know," she repeated. "Seriously? Kev, get real."

"She's right, bro," Javier agreed.

"Thank you, Javi."

"You're only saying that because she's your girlfriend," Kevin said, his tone almost accusatory.

"Well…" Javi shrugged, his face indifferent. "Not _only._"

Over the chorus of laugher, Kate could still hear a very distinctive voice calling out, "Hey, K! Mads!"

She turned – though she already knew who it was, she felt a sort of need to confirm. Her face split into a grin as her eyes landed on the familiar slender jean-and-tank-top-clad figure of Jordan Shaw loping gracefully down the hallway towards them, white sneakers slapping against the tile floor, orange hair streaming out behind her.

They all had quite a few friends outside their tight-knit group (Madison more than anyone), but Jordan was one of the few that they all were close to. Though, admittedly, she wasn't someone that they typically went out of their way to hang out with – she preferred to spend time with a bunch of different people and a single best friend rather than always be with a small group.

She slowed to a stop in front of them, greeting them each in turn – "Yo," to Javi and Kevin, "Hi," to Jenny, "Hey," and a fist bump to Madison, and a side hug and "It's good to see you, K" to Kate, who smiled at the use of the nickname. K. Only Jordan called her that. Jordan seemed to like calling people by only the first letter of their names. Kate was the only member of her group that Jordan did it to, though – Madison was always Mads, because M didn't suit her. Kevin was always Kevin or Kev, because Kate had already laid claim to K. Jenny was always Jen, and Javier always Javi, because they had the same first letter, and because Jordan herself was always J.

"So," she began. "You guys don't know Rick Rodgers and Elaina Parish, do you? Two of the new kids?"

"We've met," Kate replied simply.

"Have you seen them?"

"Not recently," she said dubiously. "Why?"

"They were supposed to meet me after school." Jordan frowned, pursing her lips. "Can't find them, though."

"If we see them," Madison chimed, "we'll tell them you're looking for them."

"Hey! Jordan!"

Kate was suddenly torn between the impulse to laugh and the need to give this guy a patented Kate Beckett Death Glare. Because, of course, she knew that voice, too.

"Speak of the devil," Jordan muttered, irritation clear in her tone, as she whirled around to face the approaching pair. "Where were you?"

"Where were we?" Rick shot back, sounding rather affronted. "Where were you?"

"Me? I was out in front of the school, where I was supposed to be, waiting for you guys. What held you up?"

"Elaina had a few questions for the Art History teacher," Rick told her, pointing almost accusatorily at the short dark-skinned girl beside her.

Elaina shook her head, shifting her weight onto her left foot and blowing a small semi-transparent pink bubble before pulling the gum back into her mouth. "Sure," she muttered. "Blame it on me. Because you totally weren't completely into that whole chiaroscuro thing."

"It was cool!" he defended.

"Mm-hm. Name one situation in which that information is going to be useful later in life."

Rick frowned, looking off to the side as his expression glazed over; he tapped his foot on the ground, his blank gaze wandering as his mind spun to find an answer.

"Somebody change the subject, fast," Elaina urged. "He will think of something eventually."

Madison laughed; Kate complied, asking, "Why were you guys meeting up with Jordan?"

"Burgers!" Jordan answered enthusiastically. "Sort of a congratulations-we-survived-the-first-day-of-seniorship feast. On me."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Seniorship?"

Jordan frowned, tipping her head to the side. "Seniorhood?"

"I don't think either of those are words, J."

"One of them's got to be. Seniorship, seniorhood. One or the other."

"I don't think so."

"Okay, stop with the bothersome logic." Jordan clamped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut – clear body language for 'I don't want to hear it'.

Kate laughed, reaching out and prying Jordan's hands from her ears. "Okay, fine. I get it."

"You should come!" Jordan blurts, her eyes widening.

"What?"

"Burgers!" she exclaims, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh." Kate frowned. "I shouldn't."

"You should! Come on, K, be spontaneous."

"Jordan."

"Katherine," the redhead replied, mimicking Kate's disapproving tone. "Loosen up, okay? It'll be fun."

She bit her lip; turning to Rick and Elaina, she asked, "You guys don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not," Rick replied, just a little bit too quickly.

"You guys should all come," Elaina added, almost as though she'd recognized his mistake and was doing her best to cover it up.

Okay, Kate. Where did that come from? What mistake? He answered quickly. That doesn't necessarily mean anything. Maybe he just talks fast. You barely know him. It's possible.

Rick and Elaina baffled her. She had just met them, but she prided herself on being rather good at reading people. But what she was getting from the two of them… it confused her. She'd originally guessed that she was his girlfriend, and she'd seen nothing to confirm or deny that theory. Still, they had a weird sort of synergy, like a twin thing. Like they practically knew what the other was thinking. Almost like brother and sister.

At any rate, they baffled her.

Kate shrugged, turning back to Jordan. "Burgers sounds good." She looked back over her shoulder, to where Madison was chattering about something or other to the rest of the group. "Javi?"

"Huh?" He looked over his own shoulder.

"Burgers?"

"Awesome," he replied simply before turning back to relay the suggestion to the rest of the group.

Barely five minutes later, Kate and her entire group were trekking across the grassy lawn in front of Marlowe High with Jordan, Rick, and Elaina, heading for Remy's with the school and the sun at their backs.


	6. Chapter 6

"So he's reaching for his gun, and she steps on his wrist, and she's pointing her gun at him and she just says, 'Go ahead, I need the practice'."

"That is classic." Kevin shook his head as he dragged a French fry back and forth a few times through his little cup of ketchup before lifting it and biting the end off.

"You're saying they turned you down?" Javi asked.

"Yeah," Rick agreed. "Something about not having what it takes."

Javi shook his head slowly; he picked up a French fry, folded it in half, dipped the entire thing into the ketchup so only the part he was holding onto with two fingers was exposed, and then shoved the entire thing in his mouth. "That's crazy, bro. I'd read that."

"Which is saying something," Kate remarked, "because Javi doesn't read."

Rick looked up at her voice, his face lighting up as his eyes landed on her walking towards them carrying a tray loaded with food (God, she was beautiful – he'd almost forgotten). "Beckett," he greeted, sounding nothing short of delighted. Her last name rolled off his tongue easily, naturally, before he had a chance to consider what calling her by it might imply. Calling someone by their last name… in his mind, it felt overly formal. Distant, removed, remote. Impersonal. But this… this was different. Of course he was calling her Beckett – she was Beckett. It sounded right in his voice. It was what came naturally, escaping from his lips almost automatically, as though he had been calling her by it for years.

"Hey," she replied, sounding slightly confused as she put her tray down on the table. She pulled out the chair next to Javi and across from Rick, slid into it, and pulled herself back in towards the table before taking a sip of her chocolate milkshake through the bright red straw.

"I read," Javi protested, oblivious to the quasi-awkward exchange.

"You do not," Kate scoffed. "Please." She took another sip before she asked, "What book are we talking about?"

"Not a book," Kevin replied once he'd swallowed the French fry in his mouth. "Something Rick wrote."

She turned to Rick, eyebrows raised. "You're a writer?"

"On my better days."

She huffed a laugh as Madison, Elaina, and Jordan joined them, each carrying trays of their own. For once, Madison's lips were pressed together as the other two girls chatted contentedly.

"Are you serious?" Elaina shook her head slowly.

"What?" Jordan protested. "Don't give me that, he's cute."

"He is not."

"He is. Out of them all, he's the most attractive."

"That's not saying much, Jordan. None of them are attractive."

"What're we talking about?" Kate asked.

"We're discussing the pros and cons of the various Bonds," Jordan replied happily as she took the seat next to Kate, Elaina sliding into the one across from her beside Rick.

"Correction," Madison interjected as she sat down at the end of the table. "They are discussing the pros and cons of the various Bonds. I want no part in this conversation."

"That's a first," Kate muttered, before turning to Jordan. "Bonds?"

"Mm-hm." Jordan nodded. "You know, the different actors who play James Bond in the various movies."

"Oh." Kate frowned.

"You don't like Bond?" Jordan asked, her tone overdramatically sad.

Kate shrugged indifferently. "I was always more of a John Woo girl."

"You like John Woo?" Rick interrupted, and she turned to him, smiling slightly, and replied, "The bloodier, the better."

"Whoa."

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nothing, nothing." He shrugged. "I just… I've never met a girl who was into John Woo."

"Well, now you have." She picked up her burger and took a bite out of it; as she chewed, put the burger down, and swallowed, she looked up at Rick. He had the most ridiculous look on his face – some sort of weird, enthusiastic, excited smile that one might see on a six-year-old watching Star Wars for the first time. "What?"

"Nothing," he said again. "Just… that's kinda hot."

She shook her head, making an exasperated noise under her breath, just barely loud enough for him to hear. In an attempt to wipe the annoying goofy grin off his face, she remarked, "Don't get used to it, Writer Boy."

It worked – she could see him wince at the nickname, and it drew a triumphant smile on her face.

"Anyways." Jordan turned back to Elaina, setting her arms firmly on the table as though preparing for a serious debate. "Sean Connery. Normally, with things like this, the original is the best."

"I don't know," Elaina replied, "I kind of liked Pierce Brosnan."

"Everybody likes Brosnan. You're just jumping on the bandwagon."

"I am not. And I could say the same about Connery."

"Not so, my friend."

"Whatever. What about Craig?"

"Daniel Craig?" Madison made a little 'pff' noise. "Please. Blonde Bond? It doesn't work."

"Eh. I guess."

Kate took a bite out of her burger, savoring the taste as she chewed – nobody made hamburgers quite like Remy's – and set it down after a second, looking past the arguing redhead and dark-skinned her to the awkward-looking blonde at the head of the table.

Awkwardness was not a look Kate normally saw on Madison. Actually, she didn't think she'd ever seen Mads looking awkward before. And quite honestly, it was not a good look on her.

"You're awfully quiet over there, Mads," she said.

"I don't like Bond," Madison muttered, almost shamefully, to her plate.

"Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?" Kate objected, drawing a small grin out of Madison. "Come on. You're not normally this… submissive."

"Jordan is loud," Madison explained. "So is Elaina. The two of them together?" She shuddered. "Scary."

"And you've known Elaina for how long?"

"You should've seen them in line to get food." She held up both hands and mimed two people talking nonstop, and Kate laughed. "Dude. It was ridiculous. And kind of scary. Have I mentioned scary?"

"Once or twice," Kate replied.

"I tried to join the conversation," Madison said defensively. "Couldn't keep up. Bond this, Bourne that, Mission: Impossible everything. These two like spy movies."

"So change the subject," Kate suggested. "You're good at that."

"I guess. Hey, guys." She tapped both Jordan and Elaina on the shoulder, pulling them out of their heated Bond debate; in unison, they turned their heads to look at her. "Okay. Who's seen The Avengers?"

Elaina's eyes widened, and her hands flew up to her face. "I love The Avengers. I love love _love _The Avengers."

"Everybody love love _l_oves The Avengers," Jordan mimicked.

"Because it's a good movie," Madison pointed out.

There was a pause before Jordan replied with a simple, "True."

"Okay, guys." Elaina leaned across the table towards them, her black locks nearly dipping into her chocolate milkshake as they swung forward. "Who's cooler – Natasha Romanoff or Tony Stark?"

"Oh, that's hard." Jordan pressed a finger against her lips as she considered; Kate, having fulfilled her duty as a best friend, turned back to the boys. "So. We were talking about Rick's writing."

-0-0-0-

Two hours.

That's how long they all sat together at a table at Remy's. Elaina, Rick, and Kevin on one side of the table; Jordan, Kate, and Javi on the other; and Madison sitting proudly at the head. Rick talked endlessly about his writing. Jordan, Madison, and Elaina chatted about movies and television shows and various good-looking actors. At one point, Elaina made some comment about a superhero movie Kate knew Javi loved, and he pushed out his chair, hurried over to the three girls, and practically shoved Madison aside as he demanded to switch seats with her. She put up a bit of a fight (knowing Mads, mostly because he asked in an annoying way, not because she didn't want to move), but eventually he sat down at the head of the table and Madison moved next to Kate. And, of course, she quickly dominated the conversation. She was like that. Kate wasn't honestly paying much attention, though; she was torn between feeling grateful that he didn't ask her to switch seats and wondering why Javi was laughing louder than he had all day as he talked with Elaina.

Which was weird. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that she had no right to be feeling the former of those things and that she wasn't sure she was feeling the latter at all. She had just met this Rick Rodgers guy – why on Earth is she glad that Javi didn't ask her to move away from him? She barely knew him. Quite honestly, he kind of annoyed her. Maybe she was getting over Javi but hadn't realized it yet, and attachment to Rick was her subconscious mind's way of pulling her away from her boyfriend. Or maybe she was just overanalyzing this and she should shut up, get a good night's sleep, and feel saner in the morning. Because this bizarre attraction to a boy she barely knew? It wasn't like her.

On the other hand, she had every right to feel a little bit irked as Javi laughed with Elaina. Hell, she was supposed to feel irked by that. She was expected to watch her boyfriend interacting with the pretty new girl in her peripheral vision, expected to keep one eye on him for a while to make sure he wasn't going to end up seeing her on the side. She was expected to be a little bit jealous and overprotective. A lot of people would see it as a little bit weird if she didn't feel that way.

And that was the problem. She wasn't sure she did feel that way.

When she glanced over at Javi chatting happily with Elaina, saw him high-five her several times (even come close to holding her hand at one point), glimpsed him as he went so far as to tuck a strand of hair that had fallen into her face back behind her ear… yes, she felt a bit of something close to jealousy but not quite. Not really jealousy, because there wasn't anything to really say that he would ever see her as more than a friend. Not really jealousy, because Kate knew that she could make him roar with laugher; she knew that she could high-five him and hold his hand; she knew that he would brush her hair out of her face when it swept in front of her eyes. Not really jealousy… but close.

But there was something else, too. Something that threatened to overpower the not-quite-jealousy. Something she tried to squash into oblivion because it felt off, wrong, almost scandalous. Something that kept coming back no matter how hard she tried to suppress it. Something she couldn't define.

Maybe she could call it a feeling of dismissiveness, a sort of 'well, if he's happy, I'm happy' vibe accompanied by the assurance that he cared about her enough that he wouldn't think of cheating on her with this girl he barely knew. But that wasn't it. Not quite.

There was something more. It was one of those emotions that started in your head but gradually worked its way down to the pit of your stomach and sat there, dwelling, growing, strengthening into a nagging sensation that plagued you wherever you went. It was deep, layered, undefinable. But if you delved deep enough into it, you might reach a point where you can separate out at least one, maybe two or three concrete, simple emotions. Kate had buried herself as deep as she could in this feeling, but she only came up with one word to describe one small fragment of this emotion.

_Relief._

Which, like the rest of this whole mess that was her emotions at the moment, made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

"Hey, Beckett."

She turned, even though the voice and the last name had already told her exactly who was speaking. "Hey," she greeted as the door to Remy's swung closed behind him. She had been standing alone on the street outside the restaurant – Elaina, Madison, Jordan, and the boys had all headed to their various homes by various means of transportation (Elaina and Jordan walked; Madison and Javi hailed cabs; and Kevin was picked up by his older sister) after she'd assured them she'd be fine as she waited for her dad to pick her up on her own. Rick had offered to pay for the food, and it didn't take him long to convince Jordan to let him. So while Kate's friends had departed one by one, he'd still been inside the restaurant. And she'd been alone.

She wasn't anymore. And the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach told her there was hidden meaning beneath that simple statement.

"What's up?" she asked him, shoving her hands deep into the front pockets of her jeans. The warm wind of summer-becoming-autumn picked up her straightened sheet of bronze hair and played with it, swirling it around her face and threatening to reveal its true wavy state.

"You meant what you said earlier, right?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"About my writing," he clarified. "That I should keep trying until I get published."

"Oh." She shrugged. "Yeah. I meant it."

"Yeah," he agreed, turning away from her and fixing his eyes on the street. "You're not the sort to say things she doesn't mean."

"Really? You picked up on that after knowing me for one day?"

"I'm very observant." For a few minutes, they stood in silence, until he said, "My girlfriend doesn't think so."

"She doesn't think you're observant?" The corner of her lips twitched upwards, hinting at a concealed grin.

"She doesn't think I should keep writing," Rick corrected. "She thinks I should give up."

"She's wrong," Kate stated simply. Her mind, predictably, spiraled into a thousand different thoughts of how he could take this very open objection to his girlfriend's opinions. She did her best to shut it up, but one thought remained – something about what he'd said, the way he'd said it, that tugged at something in the corner of her brain.

"You said 'my girlfriend'," she noted.

"Yeah."

"As in, I don't know her."

"I don't think you know her."

"Oh." Kate paused, tried to figure out how to word what she was thinking. "So, then – you and Elaina –"

"Huh? Oh. No." He shook his head. "No, not like that."

"Oh." The part of the feeling in the pit of her stomach that she'd managed to isolate surged up and enveloped her in a cloud of relief. And, of course, she had no idea why. Did she want to like Elaina, but felt obliged not to because she thought that Elaina was with Rick? No, of course not. Why would she feel that way?

Again, none of this made sense to her.

Another minute passed before Rick said, "Her name's Regina. We've been together almost three years."

"I didn't ask," Kate said softly.

"Yeah," he agreed. "You were not asking very loudly."

What did that imply? Nothing. It implied nothing. Of course it implied nothing. Why would it imply something? He had known her for just as short a time as she had known him. Neither of them should be implying anything.

"So," she began, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Elaina –"

"She's my best friend," Rick told her. "Practically my sister. We grew up together."

"Oh." She seemed to be saying that a lot in this conversation. She really should work on putting together replies that consisted of more than one syllable.

"And," Rick added, his voice growing softer as he leaned in closer to her as though he were telling her a secret (she couldn't stop the shiver that ran through her body). "She won't tell you this because she thinks 'Elaina' sounds mature and sophisticated," he whispered, "but… she'd like it better if you called her Lanie."


	7. Chapter 7

It had been two weeks.

Fourteen days since she met Rick and Elaina. Thirteen since she called her Lanie for the first time. Ten since she stopped insisting that she call her Elaina. Nine since she and Madison spent their Saturday with Elaina, Jordan, and Jordan's best friend, Vic, for a marathon of all their favorite superhero movies. Eight since she spent an entire Sunday morning in a Starbucks, laughing with Rick over cups of coffee. Six since they all spent the afternoon doing homework together at Kevin's house while Allyson did her best to keep Dani and Reagan (mostly Reagan) from bothering them too much. Four since Madison announced that she was scheduling her official let's-send-summer-vacation-out-with-a-bang slumber party for the weekend after next. Two since she spend almost the entire day battling Elaina, Jordan, and Vic in four-player mode in various video games (Vic won nearly every time). One since she moped around the house in her pajamas all day because there was nothing to do because Rick couldn't meet her for coffee again.

Two weeks. It went by so fast.

They'd fallen into a routine so easily. They met up at the beginning of school but quickly went their separate ways. Jordan would run off to find Vic; Rick and Elaina would head off on their own, promising to meet up with the others between classes and at lunch; and Kate, Javi, Madison, Jenny, and Kevin would merge into the cohesive unit that was their group and start on their way to class together. They'd all meet up at lunchtime (they'd pushed enough tables together so that all nine of them could sit together, though it was often only eight, as Vic valued her solitude and her loner status and refused to be officially classified as part of a group) before splitting up again for the afternoon classes. And finally, they'd meet up after school was over and head to Remy's to eat and to hang out and sometimes to collaborate on homework. It was a great routine; Kate had almost begun to include Rick, Elaina, and Jordan when she thought of 'her group'.

"Katie?" A woman opened the door of Kate's room and poked her head in. A pretty face, not unlike Kate's own, but mature, aged, almost weary but still somehow full of life. Waves of brown hair, darker than Kate's golden shade. A bright smile despite the early hour (coffee might have had something to do with that).

"Madison's at the door," she said. "Are you ready to go?"

Kate checked her reflection in the full-length mirror on the wall. Dark skinny jeans, appropriate for the weather, as the temperature was dropping abnormally fast. Brown leather flats with a strip of black leather stitched around the top. A crisp, dark purple shirt that buttoned up the front, the sleeves rolled up so they barely reached her elbows, a metallic silver pinstriped tie dangling loosely from around the fold-out collar. Madison had bought it for her, saying 'she wore too many shirts that looked like guy's shirts and if she was going to keep on doing that she might as well go all out and wear a damn tie, too'. Kate would never forget the look on her friend's face when she actually showed up at school wearing the thing.

Her hair was left in its natural waves today, but she'd dragged it back and twisted it into a neat bun perched on the back of her head. She wore very little makeup, a bit of gloss coating her lips and a dusting of silver on her eyelids to pick up on the shade of the tie. Her sleek, feminine black watch was tight around her left wrist, and a simple string of gray beads hung around her right.

"Yeah," she said finally. "I'm good to go." She stepped towards the door – the woman behind it pushed it open so she could get past, but instead of hurrying by, Kate stopped to wrap her arms around her. Like she did every morning. "See you, Mom."

"Should I assume you'll be heading to Remy's with your friends again?"

"Yup," Kate replied as she pulled back.

"You're going to have to tell me about these people someday."

"I've told you about them."

"Not much," Johanna reasoned. "I want to hear about this Lanie girl, and I know Jordan, but not very well. Really, Kate – you say you're spending time with a whole group of people, and yet the only one who shows up in the stories you tell me is this Rick character."

"Mom," Kate groaned.

"I'm just saying." Her mother put up her hands in a gesture of surrender. "You seem to like him."

"I do. Not like that, don't even go there. You remember Javi? Tall, Hispanic, dark hair, normally found within ten feet of Kevin? Well, I'm sort of dating him."

"I'm aware," she replied, but offered no further comment. "Alright, you get going. Maddie's waiting."

"Right." Quickly, she slipped through the doorway past her mother and hurried to the kitchen, where her father was pouring coffee into a blue mug. She opened a cabinet and pulled out her green Starbucks travel mug, took the pot of coffee from her father's hands, and proceeded to fill the mug with the black stuff (supplementing with the milk and sugar that her father already had out on the counter). As she screwed on the top of the travel mug, she placed the coffee pot back in her father's hands and kissed his cheek. "See you, Dad," she said happily; as she speed-walked out of the kitchen and over to the front door, she heard him reply with a slightly dumbfounded, "See you, Katie."

The front door was open; Madison was standing in the hallway, looking amazing (as usual) in light wash flare jeans and a black sleeveless turtleneck sweater. But upon seeing the smile on her friend's face, Kate stopped, frowning. That was a bad smile. That was a Madison-knows-something-she's-not-supposed-to smile.

"Do I even want to know?" she asked darkly as she stepped out of her apartment, pulling the door closed behind her.

"She's right," Madison replied simply as they began walking towards the elevator, but as soon as her words registered with Kate, the brunette girl stopped again, groaning and looking up at the ceiling. "You were not eavesdropping on me."

"Sorry," Madison said with a halfhearted wince. Kate shook her head and began walking again, faster now, so Madison had to run a few steps to catch up with her. "It's true, though!" she called after her. "You talk about him all the time."

"I do not."

"Well, not to me, you don't. But to other people. Your parents, for example. And when we're hanging out with Vic, you tell her about things that he did when she wasn't around. Rick this, Rick that. Almost like," her eyes grew wide, "you _like _him."

"Oh, grow up," Kate scoffed.

"No."

"You're impossible."

"I know. You love me for it, though."

"Eh." She shrugged. "Some of the time."

-0-0-0-

"Kate!"

"K!"

The two exclamations came at exactly the same time, so similar they would have been indistinguishable were it not for the dramatic difference between the voices two speakers. Kate lifted a hand, waving to the two of them. "Hey, J. Lanie." Then, a smile and nod to the girl standing with them. "Vic."

"Hey, Kate," Vic greeted with a nod of her own. Vic Gates was tall and lean, with long, straight black hair and skin a shade darker than Elaina's. She wore mature but fashionable clothes, crisp jeans and solid color tank tops, mostly, normally with tall boots. She wielded her outsider status like a shield, listened to punk rock music, and was even more adept at giving death glares than Kate. She didn't seem to care what people thought of her and always spoke her mind, giving her a reputation for her brutal candor.

In short, she was the sort of person Kate could respect. Thus the respectful nods.

"Where are Kev, Jenny, and Javi?" Jordan asked, her voice somehow managing to contain both enthusiasm and concern.

"Javi should be here soon," Madison replied. "Kev's with his sister, getting a ride from his other sister, and I think they're late-ish because they had to drop off his other other sister, too.." She frowned. "With Dani. Getting a ride from Allyson. Because they had to drop off Reagan. Damn, that kid has too many sisters. Anyways, he should be here soon, too. Jenny is, predictably, getting a ride with Kevin."

"Of course," Jordan said, as Kate turned to Elaina and asked, "Where's Rick?"

"Not sure," Elaina told her. "He's late, which isn't like him."

"He's gotten used to having you around to make sure he gets here on time," Jordan theorized.

"Maybe," Elaina said. "And since I spent the night at your place –"

"– he doesn't have that luxury," Kate finished. She shrugged. "Knowing Rick, it's possible."

"Knowing Rick," Elaina muttered, "anything's possible."

"Yo!" Even without the distinctive voice, Kate would've been able to guess who was speaking simply by the single word he'd called out. But she turned anyways, smiling at the sight of Javi jogging across the grass towards them.

"Morning, chica," he said as he came to a stop next to Kate and looped an arm over her shoulder. In response, she turned her head up towards him and pulled him down for a kiss. She'd been doing this a lot more often lately. Maybe it was a sign that she still loved him; maybe it was a sign that she didn't, and she was trying to compensate, to bring the feelings back; or maybe she was just testing, checking to make sure that the same warm fuzziness still filled her when she kissed him.

It did. She closed her eyes, humming softly against his lips as his aura seemed to envelop her, warming the air around them to the softest, most comfortable sort of heat. And she tried to ignore the fact that Madison was wolf-whistling.

And as soon as they broke apart, right after she murmured a response of "Morning," she shot her best friend a look that clearly said, 'shut the hell up or I'll strangle you'.

Grinning, Javi turned to the others, saying, "Morning, girls."

"Morning, Javi," Elaina, Jordan, Vic, and Madison chorused, and it was all Kate could do not to crack up laughing at the droning, sarcastic boredom that dripped from Vic's voice. She could've fit right into their group without even needing to try. But she didn't want to.

"So," he asked the group. "Where's everyone else?"

"Ryan and Jenny are getting a ride from Allyson," Madison reiterated. "Rick… we have no idea where the hell he is."

"Great."

Allyson chose that moment to pull up to the front of the school. Kate probably wouldn't have recognized her generic dark blue car, but she certainly recognized the disgruntled-looking fourteen-year-old girl who stepped out of the backseat door almost before the car stopped moving. She had the same insanely frizzy hair as her older sister, a light shade of mousy brown, cut just above her shoulders so it framed her head in something almost like an afro. Her eyes were the same vibrant blue as the rest of her family's, she wore jean shorts, a hot pink sleeveless turtleneck, and red Converse hi-tops, and her Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpack hung off one shoulder. She threw the door shut, called a quick goodbye to the driver, and took off towards the school at a pace somewhere between a jog and a run. As she passed them, Danielle Ryan piped "Hey, guys," but kept running without waiting for a response.

Kate watched Dani hurrying towards the school for a minute before turning back to the car to see Kevin climbing out of the passenger seat. He walked around behind the car, opened the trunk, got out his backpack, slung it onto one arm before threading the other through the second strap. After a second, Jenny joined him, having gotten out of the backseat on the other side of the car; she grabbed her own backpack, smiled at Kevin, and began walking towards Kate and the others. Kevin closed the trunk, walked around to the shotgun side and closed the door, said goodbye to Allyson through the open window, and headed towards the group.

"Hey," he greeted as he trudged towards them. "Where's Rick?"

"Everybody's asking that!" Madison exclaimed. "He's MIA. Nobody's got a clue where he is."

Kate glanced at her watch. "We should head inside," she said. "He'll get here soon."

No one argued, though Jenny, Vic, and Jordan all checked their own watches before following Madison, Javi, Kevin, and Elaina towards the doors of Marlowe High. Kate, despite the fact that she'd been the one to suggest going inside, lagged at the back of the group, casting one last glance back at the parking lot as though she expected to see Rick jogging towards them before following her friends into the school.

-0-0-0-

Rick arrived halfway through second period.

He entered the classroom silently, dropping into an empty seat all the way at the back of the room. He scanned the room for people he recognized; Jordan, Vic, and Madison were sitting together two rows ahead of him. And a row ahead of them, Kevin, Jenny, Javi, and Kate.

Kate. He could only see her back, but her posture and the familiar sheen of her bronze hair made her instantly recognizable. He wanted to call out to her, say hello, apologize for his lateness. But he'd barely managed to slip in unnoticed and didn't really want to call attention to himself.

He regretted not saying hello across the room as soon as the class ended. Because as soon as she spotted him among the jumble of seniors, she left her friends behind, charged right up to him, and delivered a rather painful poke.

"Ow!"

"What the hell happened?" she demanded. "Where were you?"

"I overslept, okay?" he told her.

"You over–" She seemed to notice the bags under his eyes, the weariness of his face. "What's going on?" she asked, concern edging into her voice.

"Don't poke me."

"I won't. What's going on?"

He shrugged. "Nothing. Stayed up too late writing."

"Wri –" She cut herself off in the middle of the word, shaking her head slowly. "Look, I know I said I supported you and your writing, but you can't stay up typing away you fall asleep at your desk."

He opened his mouth, ready with a response of "Why not?" but thought better of it. After a second, he simply replied, "Okay."

"Okay." She reached out and grabbed his arm; he sucked in a breath at the feeling of her cool fingers against his skin. Thankfully, she didn't seem to notice – she was too busy dragging him towards the rest of her group, saying, "Come on. Lanie and Mads and Javi and Kevin and Jenny and Jordan, they'll want to yell at you themselves."


End file.
